Simple Machines

Simple machines are extremely important to everyday life. They make stuff that is normally difficult a piece of cake. There are several types of simple machines. The first simple machine is a lever. A lever consists of a fulcrum, load, and effort force. A fulcrum is the support. The placing of the fulcrum changes the amount of force and distance it will take in order to move an object. The load is the applied force. The effort force is the force applied on the opposite side of the load. Levers can be placed in three classes. The 1st class levers are objects like pliers where the fulcrum is at the center of the lever. The 2nd class of levers are objects that have the fulcrum on the opposite side of the applied force like a nutcracker. The 3rd and final class is objects like crab claws. These objects of the load at one end and the fulcrum on the other. An inclined plane is another simple machine. Inclined planes are also known as ramps. Ramps make a trade off between distance and force. No matter how steep the ramp, the work is still the same. A winding road on a mountain side is a good example of a ramp. Some simple machines are modified inclined planes. The wedge is one of those machines. One or two inclined planes make up a wedge. Saws, knives,needles, and axes are made from wedges. The screw is another modified inclined plane. Screws decrease the force but increase the distance. The ridges are called threads. A couple of simple machines are made with wheels. The wheel and axle is one of these machines. These are made with a rod joined to the center of a wheel. They can either increase distance or force, depending on the size of the wheel. The pulley is another machine that uses wheels. The are a wheel with a groove in the center with a rope or chain stretched around it. The load attaches to one end and the effort is applied to the other on all pulleys. There are two types of pulleys. The fixed pulley stays in...

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Activity 1.1.2 SimpleMachines Practice Problems Answer Key
Procedure
Answer the following questions regarding simplemachine systems. Each question requires proper illustration and annotation, including labeling of forces, distances, direction, and unknown values. Illustrations should consist of basic simplemachine functional sketches rather than realistic pictorials. Be sure to document all solution steps and proper units.
All problem calculations should assume ideal conditions and no friction loss.
SimpleMachines – Lever
A first class lever in static equilibrium has a 50lb resistance force and 15lb effort force. The lever’s effort force is located 4 ft from the fulcrum.
1. Sketch and annotate the lever system described above.
2. What is the actual mechanical advantage of the system?
Formula Substitute / Solve Final Answer
AMA = 3.33
3. Using static equilibrium calculations, calculate the length from the fulcrum to the resistance force.
Formula Substitute / Solve Final Answer
A wheel barrow is used to lift a 200 lb load. The length from the wheel axle to the center of the load is 2 ft. The length from the wheel and axle to the effort is 5 ft.
4. Illustrate and annotate the lever system described above.
5. What is the ideal mechanical advantage of the system?...

...SimpleMachines
Definitions:
Machine- A device that makes work easier by changing the speed , direction, or
amount of a force.
SimpleMachine- A device that performs work with only one movement. Simplemachines include lever, wheel and axle, inclined plane, screw, and wedge.
Ideal Mechanical Advantage (IMA)- A machine in which work in equals work out;
such a machine would be frictionless and a 100% efficient IMA= De/Dr
Actual Mechanical Advantage (AMA)- It is pretty much the opposite of IMA meaning
it is not 100% efficient and it has friction. AMA= Fr/Fe
Efficiency- The amount of work put into a machine compared to how much useful
work is put out by the machine; always between 0% and 100%.
Friction- The force that resist motion between two surfaces that are touching
each other.
What do we use machines for?
Machines are used for many things. Machines are used in everyday life
just to make things easier. You use many machines in a day that you might take
for granted. For example a simple ordinary broom is a machine. It is a form of
a lever. Our country or world would never be this evolved if it wasn't for
machine. Almost every thing we do has a machine involved. We use machines...

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SimpleMachine:
A machine with few or no moving parts. Simplemachines make work easier.
Examples: Screw, Wheel and Axle, Wedge, Pulley, Inclined Plane, Lever
Compound Machine:
Two or more simplemachines working together to make work easier.
Examples: Wheelbarrow, Can Opener, Bicycle
Inclined plane:
A sloping surface, such as a ramp. Makes lifting heavy loads easier. The trade-off is that an object must be moved a longer distance than if it was lifted straight up, but less force is needed.
Examples: Staircase, Ramp
Lever:
A straight rod or board that pivots on a point known as a fulcrum. Pushing down on one end of a lever results in the upward motion of the opposite end of the fulcrum.
Examples: Door on Hinges, Seesaw, Hammer, Bottle Opener
Pulley:
A wheel that usually has a groove around the outside edge for a rope or belt. Pulling down on the rope can lift an object attached to the rope. Work is made easier because pulling down on the rope is made easier due to gravity.
Examples: Flag Pole, Crane, Mini-Blinds
Screw:
An inclined plane wrapped around a shaft or cylinder. This inclined plane allows the screw to move itself or to move an object or material surrounding it when rotated.
Examples: Bolt, Spiral Staircase
Wedge:
Two inclined planes joined back to back. Wedges are used to split things....

...SimpleMachine
Joemarie A. Martinez
1-D CE
SimplemachineSimplemachines make work easier by multiplying, reducing, or changing the direction of a force. The scientific formula for work is w = f x d, or, work is equal to force multiplied by distance. Simplemachines cannot change the amount of work done, but they can reduce the effort force that is required to do the work! As you can see by this formula, if the effort force is reduced, distance is increased.
These simplemachines fall into two classes: (i) the inclined plane, wedge, screw characterized by the vector resolution of forces and movement along a line, and (ii) the lever, pulley, wheel and axle characterized by the equilibrium of torques and movement around a pivot. Wedges and screws are both a type of inclined plane; pulleys and wheels and axles are both a form of lever
A simplemachine is an elementary device that has a specific movement (often called a mechanism), which can be combined with other devices and movements to form a machine. Thus simplemachines are considered to be the "building blocks" of more complicated machines. This analytical view of machines as decomposable into simplemachines first arose in the Renaissance...

...hanicalSimple Machines and its Mechanical Advantage
What are SimpleMachines? What do we mean by Mechanical Advantage?
SimpleMachines
* creates a greater output force than the input force
Therefore since work is performed by applying a force over a distance, with the use of these machines we can do more work with lesser effort than working with our bare hands. In short, they make work easier.
Mechanical Advantage
* The Ratio between the input force and the output force.
* The measure of the force amplification achieved by using a tool, mechanical device or machine system.
Anyway what is input and output force?
Input refers to the force you applied while output refers to the resultant force the object has from the input force.
Example: I pushed a ball with 10 N of force, it is rolling with 10 N of force. I input 10 N into it, now it is outputting 10 N.
The Six Classical SimpleMachines
The Lever(French word that means “to raise”)
* A simplemachine that allows you to gain a mechanical advantage in moving an object or in applying a force to an object. It is considered a "pure" simplemachine because friction is not a factor to overcome, as in other simplemachines.
Part | Description |
Fulcrum | Is where a solid board or rod can pivot...

...Our compound machine, consisting of mainly three different simplemachines, is a crane designed to multiply your force in order to effectively and
efficiently lift the four 75 kg up a steep hill. Our machine starts off with the gear
train. As you rotate the handle, all the gears rotate along as well. Since we
connected the rope of the pulley to our gears, it then puts the pulley system into
action. We created movable pulleys throughout the arm until the tip to stabilize
our rope and also give us a mechanical advantage. At the top section of our arm
we created a lever to support the load. This magnifies our effort force since a
combination of all the mechanical energy is being carried out. With the pulley
system, connected all the way to the gear train, and the lever working all
together, our mechanical advantage is increased greatly.
We created a series of gear trains to not only increase our advantage of
torque in the machine but also to increase the mechanical advantage rather
than losing efficiency due to friction and thermal energy. Doing this, we
magnified our effort force onto the load. Also, in the gears, we arranged it so
that the input gear and the output gear gave us a low gear ratio and the idler
gears in between.
It also allows us to control the direction of our force in the machine. Since it is
linked to the pulley, we can control the direction of the rope. However, it only...

...Engineers and scientists use scientific knowledge to design and build machines that make our lives easier. The machines they build today started off with the basics, which are known as SimpleMachines. SimpleMachines are defined as the simplest mechanisms that use mechanical advantage to multiply force. These machines have either few or no moving parts, and use energy to work. This term is usually referred to the six classical simplemachines; lever, wheel and axle, pulley, inclined plane, a wedge and a screw. They make work easier for us by allowing us to push or pull over increased distances, and each have had an enormous impact the course of human civilization. Simplemachines are the elementary basics of all complicated machines. For example, wheels, levers, and pulleys are all used in the mechanism of a bicycle.
Things as simple as a knife can also be classified as a simplemachine, specifically, a wedge. A knife is a cutting tool, composed of a blade and a handle. A wedge is basically an inclined plane, that can be used to penetrate or split objects, or to stop them from moving, and reduces the force needed to cut through those objects. When the knife is used for food preparation, the main uses are slicing (which involves cutting, by drawing the...

...pure motion - motion considered abstractly, without reference to force or mass. Engineers use kinematics in machine design. Although hidden in much of modern technology, kinematic mechanisms are important components of many technologies such as robots, automobiles, aircraft, satellites, and consumer electronics, as well as biomechanical prostheses. In physics, kinematics is part of the teaching of basic ideas of dynamics; in mathematics, it is a fundamental part of geometric thinking and concepts of motion. The development of high-speed computers and robotics, and the growth of design synthesis theory and mechatronics have recently revived interest in kinematics and early work in machine design.
Working in the decades following Ampère's death, Franz Reuleaux (1829-1905) is considered the founder of modern kinematics. Reuleaux called it "the study of the motion of bodies of every kind…and the study of the geometric representation of motion" (Kinematics of Machinery 56).
Kinematics flourished in the 19th century as machine inventors learned to transmit information and forces (power) from one element in the machine to another. Steam- and water-based machines revolutionized the l9th century, but both of those energy sources generate circular motions, creating the need to convert these steady circular motions into nonsteady linear and curvilinear motion for machine applications....